Terror attacks designed to hurt sovereignty: Pranab

Kolkata, Jan 17 (PTI) The terror attacks on different
cities were not isolated incidents, but carefully designed to
challenge India's "sovereignty and national pride", India's
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Saturday.

"The acts of terrorism which has affected our country
in the last few months are not a collection of isolated
incidents, but carefully designed to challenge our sovereignty
and national pride," Mukherjee said at a programme here.

If the attacks on Delhi on 13 and 27 September last
year were planned to hit "sovereignty", Mukherjee said, the
attack on Jaipur (May 13, 2008) was a deliberate attempt to
destroy the country's "heritage".

The attack on Bangalore on July 25 was an attempt to
crush a centre of knowledge and scientific research, while the
blast in Ahmedabad was to destroy one of the biggest business
hubs of the country, the minister said.

"The recent terror attacks on Mumbai were nothing but
an extension of this plan to destroy the business capital of
the country," Mukherjee said.

"After hearing this one may consider me a suspicious
person, but I can't help it. All the targets were carefully
chosen to hurt sentiments and the economy of the country,"
Mukherjee said.

"Our enemies are jealous of us and they want to
reverse the process of our emergence as a powerful nation, but
we will foil the design," Mukherjee said. PTI